Why This Nostalgia For Fruits of Chaos?

Published: October 29, 2000

(Page 2 of 3)

Gathering many of the best talents in the country, she established model opera creation groups, which chose a story, then strove to weave her political and aesthetic ideals into it. These included a sense of the overarching importance of ''class struggle'' and her belief that there had been ''no good music written since the Internationale.'' Many of the operas that resulted were revised versions of pre-existing works, and revisions to these new models sometimes went on for years.

''We had meetings every night: this part isn't right, that part isn't right,'' said the Beijing conductor Li Delun, one of China's most respected musicians, who participated in the creation groups for several model operas and conducted the symphonic version of ''Shajiabang'' many times. ''And we played every day. Every day we did 'Shajiabang.' I could conduct it upside down. Even the musicians could play it with their eyes closed. But we still had to rehearse. Then we'd have a big meeting, and people would give their ideas: who wasn't good enough, who hit a wrong note. After we made any change, Jiang Qing had to approve. But to tell the truth, she couldn't understand a thing.''

On May 31, 1967, the work of Jiang and her creation groups was officially acknowledged in a People's Daily editorial: ''Holding high the great red banner of Mao Zedong Thought, Comrade Jiang Qing has advanced bravely to participate in this performing-arts revolution. She has created, for the first time in history, eight shining-star models for Beijing opera, ballet and symphonic music. She has captured the most stubborn citadel of theater arts, Beijing opera; surmounted the highest peak of performing arts, ballet. And that of the most sacred 'pure music,' symphony.''

The eight works singled out were two ballets, a symphony and five reformed Beijing operas. A second group of nine model operas was codified in 1973, though these were not as widely performed, and several were simply different versions of the original eight, like the symphonic rendition of the Beijing opera ''Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy.''

Once selected, the first eight model operas were spread throughout the country by every means possible: taught over the radio, made into movies, shown on television and reworked for local opera forms. Model opera scores and production guides were distributed everywhere to ensure that each performance would be the same, down to a detail as seemingly inconsequential as the size and color of a patched cloth sack carried by a peasant in a fleeting stage appearance.

Indeed, they were so pervasive that almost any Chinese person over 40 can still sing famous arias from all the model operas, and many can recite every word of dialogue, sing every song and mimic every gesture. It is perhaps not surprising that a generation raised on model operas should enjoy watching them now and then, much the way middle-aged Americans listen to the rock music of their youth or sneak a peek at a ''Brady Bunch'' rerun. For these people, there is nothing at all controversial about model operas.

''A lot of the audience for model operas is middle-aged people, the people who were teenagers during the Cultural Revolution,'' said Li Zhongcheng, the artistic director of the Beijing Opera Theater in Shanghai. ''All they saw were model operas, and they enjoy them.

''But people look at model operas with rather complicated hearts. Everyone has his or her own opinions and feelings. There are those who were hurt during the Cultural Revolution, who were treated very cruelly. As soon as they hear the opening notes of a model opera, they remember everything bad that happened, and their hearts start to beat faster. These people are mostly older, and they never want to see or hear model operas again.''

Young people who were not yet born during the Cultural Revolution, on the other hand, have no memory and little knowledge of model operas. ''Some young people aren't interested at all,'' Mr. Li said. ''They don't want to see any kind of Beijing opera. A few are curious about model operas, but they think the political parts are ridiculous. They laugh out loud.''

Some artists who were alive during the Cultural Revolution are vocal in their views. ''This group splits in two,'' Mr. Li said. ''Those who were hurt in the Cultural Revolution think model operas are bad -- they destroyed our traditions -- and they oppose performing them. But more people disagree. They think that if you can separate out the politics, model operas are a kind of artistic experiment. So many talented people worked on model operas, and many say we'll never match that quality again.''

Indeed, model operas are a classic if extreme example of East-West artistic fusion, and though the committee process by which they were created is now criticized, it had roots in the informal, open-ended collaborative process by which traditional Chinese opera has always been made.

Sheila Melvin is a freelance writer who until recently was based in Shanghai and now lives in Baton Rouge, La. Jindong Cai conducts at Louisiana State University and is a regular guest conductor of the Shanghai Symphony.